A hitherto unknown autograph manuscript of the early modern author Michel de Montaigne, together with a set of notarial deeds regarding the philosopher, have recently been discovered by Evelien Chayes. They survived 440 years since 1583, as a batch that was stitched together with sixteenth-century thread and bound in a larger portion of deeds as a so-called liasse (bundle) as part of the archives of the notary Pierre Marraquier, which, after the death of his successors, were given to the Garde-Note*, before entering the repository of the Archives départementales de la Gironde in 1828.

During the summer of 2022, while conducting her research in the context of her project SION-Digit, Evelien Chayes discovered the documents by chance. She benefitted from her ‘montaigniste’-eye, trained by dint of her collaboration, at the Humanism-department of the Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes, within the Montaigne à l’œuvre project, directed by Marie-Luce Demonet and Alain Legros (Centre d’Études supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours). Chayes contacted Legros, in order to combine their expertise. This resulted in the publication of a co-authored article in the periodical Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, LXXXV-2023, pp. 87-95: ‘Un brouillon inédit de Montaigne parmi des actes notariés’.

The notarial deeds, six in total, are dated from 30 December 1583 to 8 September 1584, during the period when Michel de Montaigne served his second mandate as Major of Bordeaux (he was re-elected on 1 August 1583). These documents concern the construction of a depot on a plot of land owned by Montaigne, situated in the Chartrons neighbourhood, not far from Château Trompette. This fortress was demolished in the first half of the nineteenth century and the area is now occupied by the esplanade des Quinconces. His plan to build on his piece of urban land was instrumentalised against him by ultra-catholic notables. In their attempt to rise to power in the office of Bordeaux’s Major, they accused him of wanting to sacrifice the public interest for his own benefit. However, once the battle was ended by the conclusive re-election of the moderate Montaigne, the royal approval for the building allowed the project to be realised, once the deeds were registered in front of the notary Marraquier.

These archives, abounding with everyday-life elements, contribute to the reconstruction of the history of sixteenth-century Bordeaux. Moreover, they contextualise Montaigne in his relationships with contemporaries, not only princes and lords, but also artisans, notaries, clerics and the witnesses that emerge in the deeds. The sixteenth-century figure who became a celebrity is part of the same tissue as the micro-histories of Bordeaux told by these sources.

Thus, this discovery gracefully illustrates the objectives of the project SION-Digit (Signifying Objects, Texts and Networks, 1500-1700. Digitising Transactions in Jewish European Culture): to render accessible a large quantity of archival sources, essentially notarial deeds, concerning Jews within the geographical triangle Venice-Bordeaux-Amsterdam, 1500-1700.

The autograph text, written by Montaigne – on the right side of the verso of a folio-size sheet containing a deed on the left side – is the draft version of a letter, enigmatic at first sight, as it only contains some disjointed sentences, scribbled down on the first blank sheet that came to hand for a careful redaction. The recipient of the lost letter turns out to be the Duke of Épernon, Henry III’s archimignon, who at the time way staying on the right bank of the Garonne, facing Bordeaux. The missive from the Major invited him to ignore the dispute that then opposed him to Matignon, the King’s lieutenant general in Guyenne, and receive, in the name of the King, the homage of a truly ‘princely entry’ during the first days of June 1584. A letter from Henry III to Matignon shows that, without mentioning him, Montaigne succeeded to convince the duke in the given circumstances.

* Garde-Note: since 1575, a general repository of all notarial minutes.

 

translated from: ‘Découverte d’un autographe inédit de Montaigne’, IRHT – Actualités: https://irht.hypotheses.org/6000

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